Oxford University Press (OUP) have made their most read History resources from 2023 freely available to everyone until 30th April 2024 covering a wide range of historical topics. Until the end of April, you have access to more ebook chapters, research encyclopedia entries, and journal articles than ever before.

On 28 June 1969, police raided a gay club in Greenwich Village, New York. Not an unsurprising event – it was still illegal for men to dance together in a nightclub, let alone have consensual sexual relationships, and “masquerading” as the opposite sex, for example, as a drag queen, was also a crime. A club such as Stonewall, which was attended mostly by Black and Latinx men and drag queens, was somewhere the police expected to close down without incident. Instead, the anger of the racially and sexually oppressed erupted into a riot, in turn spawning further riots and protests across the city. The riots focused national attention on the social injustice faced by homosexuals in America and sparked the conversation about tolerance and equality that has seen so much change until today.

Most people are brought up to believe there are two genders, male and female, that are separate and distinct. This is the basis of our understanding of sexual diversity – people are seen either to be attracted to people of the ‘same sex’ or the ‘opposite sex’. Life would be much simpler were this actually so…

What’s in a name? Often, a name focuses the mind and tells us what is important to a movement.

Until the nineteenth century, there was no word for being gay. Once the feelings people had for one another could be described separately from the physical act of making love, progress started to come slowly. At least for gay men. History has shown us that even within a community, and within a movement, different groups are privileged far above others.

Portsmouth Film Society/Peccadillo Pictures are very kindly providing a number of voucher codes to staff and students that will allow you to watch these films for free as part of LGBTQ+ History Month. Watch the previews below and then scroll on to the end of this post to find out how to get the codes to view these films for free.

We’re choosing the books and all getting prepared to host the Library’s first Global Storytime event, 4-5 pm on Wednesday 13 March. We have a couple of superb student storytellers signed up, and they have chosen some really exciting children’s …

Children’s global storytime Read more »